This is the 7th year I had the privilege to address the congress as your elected Chairman- 2 yrs as CDM and 5 yrs as CDP. As in every congress, the highest body of our party, I review our past years recounting our triumphs and failures. But this time I will look no further than the previous year.

We just went through an election which was traumatic for us. We lost a "crown jewel", so to speak in CDO. And in other parts of the country, we were either unable to launch a credible electoral fight; or worse in Eastern Samar and ARMM, our people were persuaded to jump to the other parties - in short, these people abandoned their beliefs and loyalties for the proverbial political "thirty pieces of silver". But yesterday, in our National Council, we begun the process of introspection and repair; and more importantly, we plan not for the next electoral contest but for a longer time period beyond even the lifetimes for some of us. The rebuilding of the CDP. I think, this is the strength of our political party. When we are down, we lick our wounds and gather our strength. The measure of a man, our camaraderie and our party is not the number of times we fall, but how we pick ourselves up after every fall and go on fighting. And we keep re-inventing ourselves. We started this process yesterday.

The ancient Chinese were wise and described our circumstances today – danger and opportunity are two faces of a coin. This last election brought us too an opportunity. The emergence of a President who is championing one of our cherished causes – an eventual Federal Republic of the Philippines. We embraced him on this advocacy and we will work towards achieving Federalism. We will work informally or through alliances with his bureaucracy thru DILG, the PDP-Laban and other like-minded groups in civil society. But we will do this inculcating the nuances of our positions for there are many; among which is the insistence on preconditions to Federalism; namely, the push for reforms and an emergence of real political parties; the passage of a real freedom of information law to enforce transparency in governance; an overhauling and true reforms of our electoral system to prevent the perversion of the way we democratically put people in power; and the rectification of our laws that emboldens the proliferation of political dynasties.

In short, we negotiate to insert our standpoints embedded in our Centrist Democratic beliefs. We must work to help shape the debate.

These two days together, the national council and the national congress are many things – a cause for celebration, a reason to pause and re-evaluate, a remembrance, an inspiration, and particularly, an occasion to honor the spirit of democracy in the Philippines. On this day, we consider both the steps forward that have been taken towards better lives for the people and progress still required to be made.

With the party leadership, we put in place yesterday, a mix of old and new, I fervently wish that the Centrist Democratic Party of the Philippines will grow from strength to strength in its rank and file and influence in the years to come.

And let me reiterate to ourselves lest we forget; if we hope to move forward as a nation, then we have to emancipate our people from the entrapment of endless cycle of poverty. It is the very reason why we are here, because there are people who still don’t have the health care they need, there’s still too many of our people dying in poverty, a huge portion of the population still are uneducated or can take a job for which they will receive equal pay for equal work.

As we gather today for our 7th National Congress, let us bear in mind that the struggle is far from over. People’s empowerment should never be reduced to individual success stories. It should be about collective well-being.

And let me revisit also our important economic tenets. There is no humanized capitalism; only the married virtues of socialism and tempered free market can provide a decent life for the people. There are no easy changes; only a genuine Philippine Democratic Party can bring meaningful social changes. There are no spontaneous revolutions; only organization makes them possible. And there is no organization without political strategy and intervention; only the link with the real struggles of our people will generate a genuine democratic leadership.

Long live the Centrist Democrats! Long live the Centrist Democratic Party in the Philippines! Long live national solidarity! Mabuhay kitang tanan!